HUMAN-EYED DOLPHINS: HUMANIST NIGHTMARES AND POSTHUMANIST ECOSYSTEMS IN JEFF VANDERMEER’S THE SOUTHERN REACH TETRALOGY.
Keywords:
KEY WORDS: The Southern Reach; Jeff VanderMeer; posthuman; posthumanism; weird fiction.Abstract
ABSTRACT: Ten years after the release of The Southern Reach trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer returns to the enigmatic realm of Area X with a fourth novel, Absolution (2024). This paper examines how the tetralogy’s engagement with the posthuman continuum challenges traditional definitions of the human-non-human dichotomy. Drawing upon philosophical posthumanism as theorized by Rosi Braidotti, I argue that the novels in question not only resist conventional definitions of ecological disaster, but also redefine the concepts of existential continuity and agency in a posthuman context. In The Southern Reach novels, the portrayal of posthuman entities reflects a deliberate deconstruction of oppositional identity configurations. VanderMeer achieves this through two primary mechanisms: on the one hand, the transference of traditionally abhuman attributes from non-human animals and alien entities to the human focalizers, and, on the other hand, the presentation of posthuman beings as desirable ontological possibilities.
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